One of a plurality of branches of a typical telephone company network operation is shown in FIG. 1. The telephone network comprises a central office (CO) that comprises a public communications (PC) department, a network distributions services (NDS) department, and a subscriber line carrier (SLC) group. In addition, the CO comprises the electronic switching system (ESS), also known as the "programming network" which gives the CO equipment an identity.
The PC department handles the installation, repair and maintenance of coin-operated telephones 38, as well as a portion of the interface terminals 40.
The NDS department handles the installation, repair and maintenance of the telephone lines, as well as the customer/public communications interface. The NDS department also maintains the main distribution and auxiliary field distribution interfaces (FDI).
The SLC group handles the installation, repair and maintenance of the pair-gain system and field electronic interface cards housed in the remote terminal (RT, located above ground) in conjunction with a control equipment vault (CEV, located underground). The pair-gain system consists of fiber optic lines which are routed from the CO to the RT/CEV interfaces. The pair-gain system creates more capacity of subscriber lines than the conventional copper lines.
Prior to Apr. 15, 1997, the installation and repair of coin-operated telephones, that utilize -130 return voltage and +130 collect voltage, relied heavily on communication between PC technicians and NDS technicians. For example, the NDS technicians in the field would communicate with PC technicians to obtain all polarity and interface data. However, new federal regulations enacted on Apr. 15, 1997 prohibit the PC groups from utilizing NDS groups. As a result, NDS technicians in the field must be self-reliant on obtaining the necessary polarity and interface data.
Thus, there remains a need for a device that can be used by NDS technicians to determine all of the necessary polarity and interface data to properly install and/or repair coin-operated telephones while complying with federal regulations that prohibit PC groups from utilizing NDS groups.